Sri Lanka claims honour of being Asia's top team

India changed cricket's landscape in the year gone by with its commercial power and heady on-field success, but Sri Lanka claimed the honour of being Asia's top team.

As Pakistan went through 2008 without playing a Test due to security concerns by visiting teams and Bangladesh continued to struggle, India and Sri Lanka carried Asia's flag at the top level.

Superpower

India flexed its might as the world's cricketing superpower by launching the multi-million dollar Indian Premier League that promised to change the fabric of what was once a leisurely afternoon sport.

The first edition of the franchise-based Twenty20 competition kept an entire nation enthralled for six weeks as top players from around the world justified their huge salaries with attractive slam-bang cricket.

At the end of the glittering 59-match extravaganza, the crown went to Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals, the cheapest of the eight franchises at 67 million dollars partly owned by Rupert Murdoch's son, Lachlan.

memorable

In traditional Test cricket, India secured coveted wins over Ricky Ponting's stumbling world champions, first in the rivals' favourite den of Perth in January that preceded a memorable 2-0 series win at home in November.

It was Australia's worst series loss since a 3-0 drubbing by Clive Lloyd's all-conquering West Indies in 1983 and indicated the balance of power was finally shifting away from Ponting's men.

Cricket survived a bloody seige by armed militants on India's financial capital of Mumbai in late November as Kevin Pietersen's England returned to play a two-Test series after cancelling a one-day series and flying home.

India dramatically won the first of those Tests, Sachin Tendulkar gleefully hitting the winning boundary and notching his 41st century into the bargain.

Former captain Sourav Ganguly and recent skipper Anil Kumble bade goodbye in November, leaving Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Venkatsai Laxman to fly the flag of India's 'fab five.'

leading run-getter

Tendulkar, 35, showed he was not going anywhere yet as he surpassed retired West Indian Brian Lara to become Test cricket's leading run-getter and became the first batsman to cross the 12,000-run mark.

The baton passed from Kumble to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, one of the world's busiest cricketers in his multiple role as wicket-keeper, batsman and captain in Tests, one-day and Twenty20 cricket.

It was, however, not all smooth sailing for the Indians.

one-day final

Mahela Jayawardene's Sri Lanka beat India 2-1 in a Test series at home in August and also defeated Dhoni's men in the Asia Cup one-day final in Pakistan.

India's bugbear was 23-year-old army officer Ajantha Mendis, an unorthodox spinner who claimed 26 wickets in three Tests, the most by a debutant in a three-match series surpassing Englishman Alec Bedser's 24-wicket haul in 1946.

Mendis, not a big turner of the ball like compatriot Muttiah Muralitharan, remained equally unplayable with his unique style - flicking the ball with his fingers to bowl off-breaks or leg-spin with one action.

Strife-torn Pakistan was reduced to a pariah of world cricket as Australia refused to tour in March and the International Cricket Council cancelled the eight-nation Champions Trophy in September due to security concerns.

Even though the six-nation Asia Cup passed off without incident in Lahore and Karachi, teams continued to shun Pakistan, who played only one-day cricket in the year.

top teams

Shoaib Malik's men won 18 of their 21 matches, 12 of them against lowly Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and ended 2008 praying the new year will bring them Test matches against top teams.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, continued to flounder at the Test level, losing seven of their eight matches in the year and survived only a rain-affected draw against New Zealand.

Bangladesh have now lost 50 of their 57 Tests, 33 of them by an innings, their lone win coming against fellow wooden-spooners Zimbabwe.

NEW DELHI, Wednesday (AFP)